My old buddy from college and roommate from when I worked in college for several years came to visit us on Saturday.  We  listened to music, talked, and ate the wonderful shrimp, clam chowder, and Caesar salad Lorena made for us.  As usual when he is around, we get to talking, so he did not leave our place until around 11:00 in the evening.  All of us went to bed, but right at midnight I got a phone call.  It was Warren, he said something about a wreck, but he was not very coherent.  I tried to get more, but the most I could get was that he was either at Albany General Hospital or on the way there, so I hopped into the pickup and headed down there.

When I arrived, Dave H. (I mostly just know him as Hog) and another friend from Salem named, Dave (I think) were standing in the Emergency Room hallway.  They told me it was a bad head-on collision and that both cars were totaled.  No one knew anything else about what was going on.  The lady at the desk told us Warren was currently getting a CAT scan.  None of us knew what that might mean, but the lady at the desk told us she would call us as soon as Warren was available to talk to someone.  So the three of us sat there in the waiting room with several others until about 2:00 AM.  Dave H. laid down on some chairs and went to sleep.  The other two of us just sat and talked with each other and an unwashed guy that had a very puffy eye with a cut under it.  He seemed to be drunk, but that might have been his normal condition.  He said he had been hit crossing the street by a police car while he was on his bicycle (with a trailer for his stuff).  From the way he described the event, it sounds like the police already knew him.  He talked incessantly and tried to bum cigarettes from anyone who happened by, but he was a pleasant enough fellow, even enjoyable, under the circumstances.

At around 2:00, a nurse came out and asked for one of us to go back with her to talk to Warren.  Dave H. went back and about a half an hour later, they came out together.  Warren could remember nothing about what happened.  It seems there was a head-on collision of some kind.  We do not know what speed they were going or where they were or any of the circumstances.  Warren was fortunate to have been in a big Tahoe SUV.  It turned out that the other people had no serious injuries either.  Warren was a little scraped up and might have had a slight concussion, but remembers none of the accident.  They told him to stay in bed for a day or two and see how he feels, but that he was probably fine.

The only thing I could think to do when I got to the hospital was wait to see what happened and chat with Warren’s friend.  It did not dawn on me until well after the fact that this was a wonderful opportunity to pray.  Actually, the first time it came to my attention was the next day, when Lorena prayed for Warren.  I knew instantly that I had missed a golden opportunity.  It looks like it turned out OK, but I could have been “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer” when it was really needed.  That saddens me.  I want to do better, the next time I get the chance.  And now.